Goodbye Volvo Land, Hello Tolls, Tunnels etc

We left a souvenir in Sweden

18 July – Oslo

Although we didn’t see much of modern Stockholm and some of it seems to be in concrete blocks others of the bits we saw are very interesting indeed.  They seem to like colour blocking on their buildings, even the glassy ones.  Stockholm is undergoing major building and road works just like every other major city we have ever visited.  Even so, it didn’t take too long to exit with the help of our little dashboard friend and head for our overnight stop of Karlstad, to which we arrived early and found no-one on site.

We already have a little bit of history with tonight’s hotel.  It was the result of some chop/change a little over a week ago (to cut out some unnecessary distance) and somehow I outsmarted myself and the Booking.com reservation date turned out to be 10 August not 17.  We didn’t discover the error in spite of a confirmation email – not read because we already know what we were doing (???) until too late but the receptionist/owner/caretaker man was kind enough not to charge us.

We tried to find a nice lunchspot which we sort of did with a bit of difficulty – not being familiar with the area but headed for the edge of the massive lake on which the town sits.  Karlstad is a university and industrial town – we didn’t know and we were happy to be on the very edge of it.  We found a local shopping centre and decided to stock up a little.  I remembered tonight’s place advertised a kitchenette so we added some broccoli and carrot to the basket and then imagine my delight at finding some vegetarian schnitzels, this would top it off!  Our lodging for the night was a quaint, converted and added to, country style house.  We found a door with a knocker and there appeared an edgy, nervous man who rushed us round to our ‘unit’ which looked to me like a partially renovated granny flat.  Some of it was cute and parts were a little grubby.  What were those two chest height drilled holes with tissue twisted into them and the shavings still on the skirting board in the bedroom?  Some of the plumbing was a bit exposed and slapdash as well.  An old clunker TV in the kitchen/dinette, with indoor aerial provided just the one channel, all Swedish to us, so we would miss Trucking in Alaska and Canada tonight – no really, the programmes picked up in this part of the world included some terrible Aussie reality things as well, plus Swedish versions of Survivor and Gladiator and no, we didn’t watch these either, just paused long enough to gag.  Only one night here and I could cook a meal which we enjoyed very much. 

Unfortunately, Howard had a fit of the tidy-up and hung his fleece jacket in the wardrobe there –where it still is.  I am going to try to retrieve it and will report any progress (it is a fairly new for Howard, a nearly two year old red job).

Still on Sweden, it’s been too much of a rush job here we’ve enjoyed the scenery, much of it flat with rolling hills and unending lakes.  Every second car is a Volvo (almost) they’re pleased to still have manufacturing here.  Plenty of Saabs still about as well.  We’ve seen quite a few well preserved Yank Tanks (in Norway too) including some fairly late model Mustangs. 

It was raining in the morning and the windscreen wipers were on all the way.  Excellent roads until we crossed the border (where again, no-one cared) and the deterioration was marked even to the point where I thought our first bridge crossing would be a one laner but then, our first toll road, much to our dashboard king’s horror, freeway conditions not logged by the GPS, more than 50km altogether of new or good road (yes and tunnels), up to three lanes either way and the closer we came to Oslo the faster it flowed – up to 100km/h legally and at just over, I was holding up traffic. 

We haven’t seen Oslo yet but have driven under it.  We know it’s hilly and on the water but honestly, the road system beneath and carved into the hills, is extraordinary and the GPS kept us going in the right direction with only one self-inflicted hiccup, quickly rectified by re-joining the freeway on the same exit’s on-ramp.

We found the hostel (with private bathroom) it’s very basic as you would expect (but not for your $100/night) and now Howard is counting sheep in the bunk above.  The only bug is they advertise wi-fi throughout the ‘hotel’ and that is not the case.  Once again we are up the stairs and along a corridor but have left the big bags in the car and as a result almost have dancing room in our room. 

A little later in the evening; The kitchen is disgusting for a hostel, very small, run down, ill equipped and even stuffed with art paper and frames because once again we have landed in an ex-missionary establishment with an adult high school attached and in full attendance.  However, with no-one else using the kitchen I was able to quickly reheat last night’s leftovers and it was yummy again.  The hostel is in a leafy suburb, we’ve been for a walk and the surrounding houses are quite large and interesting with some big expensive cars parked about and there’s a marina and yacht club down the road.  I might take some pictures tomorrow when we also plan to go in to take a look at Oslo.